When you drive around Houston you can’t help but notice that Americans are very patriotic. If it is shaped like a pole, or in anyway pole like, they‘ll hang a flag on it. Sometimes two – a state flag and the Stars and Stripes. I saw more national flags on the ceiling of Walmart than I saw NZ flags in all of last year. Not that I’m against a bit of heartfelt patriotism but I suspect it was this desire to wave flags that lead them to send two men to the moon to do just that in 1969.

It must have been extremely irksome to JFK to see a moon – in desperate need of a flag – sail nightly across the sky. When he could bear it no longer he bought America’s full resources to bear and launched the world’s most ambitious flag planting ceremony – The Apollo Space Program. Now Americans sleep easy, safe in the knowledge that their flag adorns the moon, and satisfied that the job was well done – no one has been to the moon since.

We visited the Houston Space Centre to learn more about the moon missions and a host of other space exploration themed exhibits. There are plenty of hands on exhibits for the kids and a tour of the rocket labs for the adults. Allow a full day to get the most from your visit and the huge parking lot can accomodate RVs.